NEW YORK — Sony has raised the bar on the camera sensor market, debuting a new flagship mirrorless camera with what it called “the world’s first” back-illuminated full-frame 42.4-magapixel CMOS sensor.
The new Alpha 7R II flagship boasts in-camera 5-axis image stabilization, internal full-frame 4K video recording (another first), and an astounding sensitivity range of up to 102,400 ISO.
Additionally, it has a newly refined XGA OLED Tru-Finder with the “world’s highest” (0.78x) viewfinder magnification.
Sony president Mike Fasulo stressed Sony’s leadership in the development of cutting-edge imaging technology. “Sony continues to deliver game-changing imaging products that are changing the way imaging enthusiasts, hobbyists and professionals can see and capture the world,” he said.
The new camera can record 40x super-slow motion video at 960 fps, which translates to 80 seconds of video playback for a two-second clip.
The Sony Alpha 7R II full-frame interchangeable-lens camera will be available in August for about $3,200.
Sony also debuted two midrange Cyber-shot cameras, both built around another “world’s first”: a 1-inch stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor that allows for an ultra-fast anti-distortion shutter with a maximum speed of 1/32,000 second, as well as 4K video capture and the same 40x super-slow motion as the flagship.
The sensor in the compact RX100 IV (model DSC-RX100M4) and high-zoom RX10 II (DSC-RX10M2) cameras feature advanced signal processing and an attached DRAM memory chip. The high-speed signal processing and DRAM memory chip work together to enable more than 5x faster readout of image data, Sony said.
Prior to shooting video, users can choose among 960 fps, 480 fps and 240 fps frame rates and among 60p, 30p and 24p playback formats to optimize the recording to fit the speed of the moving subject.
